ADFD ap­proves projects worth $31 mil­lion

ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi Fund for De­vel­op­ment (ADFD) and the In­ter­na­tional Re­new­able En­ergy Agency (IRENA) on Satur­day an­nounced the se­lec­tion of re­new­able en­ergy projects in Guyana, Liberia and Togo for fund­ing by ADFD, as part of the sixth cy­cle of the IRENA/ ADFD Project Fa­cil­ity.

“The projects se­lected this year will con­trib­ute to­wards meet­ing na­tional en­ergy ac­cess tar­gets and will trans­form lives for the bet­ter,” said IRENA Direc­torgen­eral Ad­nan Z. Amin. “They will take ad­van­tage of cost-ef­fec­tive re­new­able en­ergy to help re­duce poverty, en­able in­come-gen­er­at­ing ac­tiv­i­ties, and pro­vide elec­tric­ity to health­care fa­cil­i­ties and ed­u­ca­tional in­sti­tu­tions, which will cre­ate jobs, em­power women, and strengthen lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties.”

For his part, Mo­hammed Saif Al Suwaidi, Di­rec­tor Gen­eral of ADFD, said: “We are proud of our re­sul­to­ri­ented Fa­cil­ity that has sup­ported repli­ca­ble, scal­able and po­ten­tially trans­for­ma­tive re­new­able en­ergy projects set to ben­e­fit com­mu­ni­ties and im­prove their liv­ing con­di­tions. To­day, at the Ninth Ses­sion of the IRENA As­sem­bly, we are pleased to have se­lected truly im­pact­ful projects val­ued at $31 mil­lion for the sixth cy­cle of fi­nanc­ing awarded by the Fa­cil­ity. Tak­ing into ac­count this cy­cle’s re­cip­i­ents, our cu­mu­la­tive ex­pen­di­ture to date is $245 mil­lion, and we look for­ward to al­lo­cat­ing the re­main­ing $105 mil­lion to awardees of the sev­enth cy­cle.”

In Guyana, a project will re­ceive a loan of $8 mil­lion to in­stall 5.2 megawatt (MW) grid-con­nected so­lar PV sys­tems in the hin­ter­land re­gions to re­duce fos­sil fuel con­sump­tion and in­crease the re­li­a­bil­ity of elec­tric­ity sup­ply. An es­ti­mated 34,700 peo­ple in the tar­get ar­eas will ben­e­fit and around 120 di­rect and in­di­rect jobs are set to be cre­ated through­out the project life­cy­cle.

In Liberia, the loan of $8 mil­lion will con­trib­ute to the con­struc­tion of a 2.1 MW run-of-river hy­dropower plant on the Gee River. The project will ben­e­fit over 30,000 peo­ple through pro­vid­ing a clean, re­li­able and af­ford­able source of en­ergy to house­holds, schools, health fa­cil­i­ties and small busi­nesses, en­hanc­ing liv­ing con­di­tions and help­ing to re­duce poverty.

In Togo, a 30 MW grid-con­nected so­lar PV plant will be con­structed with the in­vest­ment of a $15 mil­lion loan. The project aims to bring clean, re­li­able power to around 700,000 house­holds and small busi­nesses and re­duce green­house gas emis­sions by 9,242 tonnes/year. Lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties will ben­e­fit from greater ac­cess to drink­ing wa­ter, ed­u­ca­tion and health­care as well as job cre­ation that pri­ori­tises women.

Since the first cy­cle se­lec­tion of projects in 2014, ADFD fund­ing has been al­lo­cated to 24 re­new­able en­ergy projects across the world, cov­er­ing up to 50 per cent of the to­tal project costs. They will bring more than 157 megawatts of re­new­able en­ergy ca­pac­ity on­line and cre­ate elec­tric­ity ac­cess for over seven mil­lion peo­ple, sig­nif­i­cantly im­prov­ing their liveli­hoods.